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Quick look at Fedora Core 2 test 3

I've been using Fedora Core 1 on my desktop since its release. This week, coinciding with the purchase of a brand new monitor, I decided to try an upgrade to Fedora Core 2 test 3. Here are a few of my thoughts.

This time, rather than go through a full install, I opted to try out the upgrade path. After backing up my home directory and several important files, I booted up the first of four installation compact disks.

As expected, the system recognized my previously installed Fedora Core 1 installation, and asked me if I wanted to upgrade it. I selected yes and away it went, upgrading each RPM one-by-one and periodically asking for disk changes. One thing I noticed that the disk tray still doesn't automatically eject when it needs disks 3 and 4.

The upgrade only took about 15 minutes and didn't ask me any questions. When it was finished I rebooted and was happy to see a shiny new Fedora Core installation with the 2.6.5 kernel (Fedora Core 1 uses 2.4).

FC2t3 has done away with XFree86 and replaced it with X.Org's new X server, and I was interested to see what kind of changes were in store for me. The short answer: I can't see any difference at all. The configuration file still lives in /etc/X11/XF86Config and it comes up and looks and feels identically. For software as ubiquitous as an X Server, I am mostly happy that the transition was as smooth as it was. I was, however, expecting a nightmare (and exciting) transition, reminiscent of the transition from libc5 to glibc, or a.out to ELF.

Speaking of transition, SELinux is still disabled by default. One would presume that they are having more trouble with it than they originally had planned, and I wonder if it will be ready by the time FC2 comes out. I predict that they will postpone enabling SELinux until FC3 test 1. FC2 has enough new features (Kernel, X.Org) that they don't NEED SELinux to make it a solid release. So, postpone the enabling of that until FC3t1. That's my prediction.

The PC Speaker is still disabled and the sound card (which detected correctly!) is still defaulted to the volume being off. Using the aumix tool I was able to fix the volume on my sound card (and I'm back to listening to my ogg files through the day) but the PC speaker is still off (how can I hear new mail if mutt's beeps are silent?)

I'm using FC2t3 right now on my desktop and I find it a very solid release, considering it is still beta software. Barring unforeseen circumstances, I expect I will continue using it until FC2 final is released. From the looks of things, Fedora Core 2 is turning out to become an excellent product.